I’m pleased to share with you Cycles 31 and 32. These two Cycles are my first “competition” cycles ever. I have been encouraged to enter the 2013 Bodybuilding.com Transformation Challenge. To that end, I have continued to add elements back to my workouts that helped me to build the muscle mass that I had prior to my arm and shoulder injury of last year. It is my hope that with diligent work, attention to detail and diet that I will make a decent showing. This is not necessarily about winning, but reaching the goals that I have set for myself for 2013!

To build more muscle in my chest.

To build more muscle in my legs (quads).

To build more muscle in my back.

To continue strengthen my core in preparation for resumption of planche push-up training in 2013.

To obtain a 5-6% body fat percentage while adding approximately 2-5 pounds of muscle during the next 12 weeks.

To work on consistently running at or below a 6:15 mile pace on all of my runs.

To continue to strengthen my arm and shoulders and prevent a recurrence of impingement syndrome.

Cycles 31 and 32 will contain EXACTLY same workouts. I believe that I have built in enough difficulty and novelty that I can complete 12 weeks of these workouts without hitting a plateau. I am using the weighted vest and dumbbells to add more resistance to the majority of my bodyweight exercises. This will be especially evident with my leg workouts. I am taking a HUGE gamble by adding weighted cardio on leg day! We will see what happens. I am, for the first time in one year, returning to my 300 (reps) workouts. This particular workout was a fat-burning, muscle building wonder for me. Unfortunately, I will be using my 20-pound dumbbells during this cycle. Hopefully, by the end of Cycle 32, I will be strong enough to use the 30-pound dumbbells for Cycle 33. I deconstructed the ab workout that I would normally do on weeks 2 and 5 and moved its elements to the workouts for weeks 3 and 6 and to Sunday. This has left room for my most challenging ab workout ever. It will be performed using my pull-up bar! There are other changes that have been made to reps (increased) on some exercises and the addition of some additional bar work for my back and biceps (e.g. pull-ups to failure and 30 second static curls). I must mention that diet will be key to making sure that I hit my body fat percentage goal for the contest. I am entering the LEAN Transformation Challenge portion of the competition, but will work hard the first 9 weeks of the contest to add some muscle, before leaning out during the last 3 weeks of the contest. Cardio will remain almost unchanged (removing rope jumping from Sundays) and I will focus on diet and using a cutting regimen that I have not used in over 10 years.

INTERCYCLE WORKOUT

My Intercycle workout is designed to allow me to get some active rest between my six-week workout cycles. This workout includes stretching, walking days, two light bodyweight workout days, and two Tabata workout days. Originally, my Intercycle was conceived to last two weeks. I have now, however, added an additional week. I found that I was still not sufficiently rested mentally or physically to begin a new six-week workout cycle. This workout will be listed below Cycles 31 & 32.

Feedback and suggestions are always welcomed. If you have any questions or want a copy of my workouts, please feel free to send me a personal message (PM) or an e-mail at mailto:spring85sigma@yahoo.com with “BODYSPACE” or “Natural Muscle Mass”, depending on which site you read this on, in the subject line of the e-mail.

WORKOUT CYCLES 31-32

The structure of this cycle is fairly simple. Essentially, it is three weeks of workouts performed twice. During the second repetition of the workouts, reps or times in position may be increased on some exercises. I will use a slash (/) to separate the reps for the exercises performed during the first and second repetition of the workouts. Weeks 1 and 4, 2 and 5, and 3 and 6 contain the same exercises with the second week containing increased reps, time, etc. unless otherwise stated. I also perform a complete full-body stretching regimen during each workout. I am also adding numbers in parentheses that will contain a number indicating what week I am in the Transformation Challenge. For example, (7/12) would represent the first and sixth weeks of the second cycle, but 7th and 12th weeks of the Transformation Challenge in this case.

Part 2 of this blog lists the workouts for Cycles 31 and 32 click here for part 2.